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Hi, Spiros (@fiveten) and John (@johnb). I am using the thick superglue, along with accelerator to freeze it in place. Today it will get a little gentle sanding and shaping.
@gblair - Hey George, if the superglue fix doesn't turn out as you'd like, you can always turn it into battle damage.
Hi, Brian (@brithebuilder): The superglue and accelerator worked fine, but I had considered some battle damage if it didn't work. I downloaded Meshmixer to see if I can figure out how to fix the hole in the cape on my other Conquistador. I cleaned up #1 today and I hope to spray some primer tomorrow.
I got Conquistador 1 sanded smooth, and then cleaned with alcohol. I drilled a hole in his foot (ouch!) and glued a piece of brass rod into the hole. This will securely attach him to the base at some point. I cleaned him with alcohol and then sprayed black primer on him. I think it will be cool to start with a black base, especially when creating shadows. I plan to brush paint everything except his armor. Once all the brush painting is done, I want to mask everything, and then spray the armor. Should be fun to mask! Cheers.
6 attached images. Click to enlarge.
@gblair - Great progress George. I feel your pain on filling and sanding the divots. I try to hide the supports on the lower parts of surfaces that should be mostly hidden after model assembly so I don't typically need to deal with all of them.
Great job, my friend @gblair! Nice that Tamiya putty works.
Hi Brian (@brithebuilder): I can see why you made your figures in sections that are assembled later. I am sure it helps not only the printing of the piece, but also the painting. This figure was originally 1/35 and was designed to be printed as one piece. I enlarged the figure to 1/12 in Chitubox, but I was worried about trying to cut the figure, so I left it as one piece. I printed the figure standing straight up so I could do all the supports from below, so most of them were hidden. His forearm was bent to hold a pike, so several of the supports ended up under his forearm. There were also several along the lip of his armor. I usually accept the auto supports from the software, but if I print this guy again I know now that I need to move the supports (or angle the figure differently). I'm still learning what works and what doesn't. Still a lot to learn. Watching modelers like you really helps me figure out what works. Cheers.
Looks perfect after using the Tamiya putty, George @gblair Looking forward to your painting session.
Thanks, John (@johnb). Tamiya putty fixes just about anything.
@gblair - I try to keep things laying down as much as possible, it really shortens print times as well. And we generally spend more time looking at the front/face rather than the back, so if there are some minor dimples on the back, the filling and sanding doesn't have to be perfect. Hollow really saves a lot of resin. I always start with light auto supports and then add some medium and heavy to the bottom layers and larger spaces.
Hi Brian (@brithebuilder): Thanks for the info. I have seen a lot of commercial prints that are at an angle. I have read a couple of online articles that say you should keep the angle around 40 degrees. I also click on the auto-orientation to see what it gives me. I have tried laying things flat, but I worry that it seriously increases the surface area that has to pull off the FEP. I have had a couple of prints fail because the print pulled off the supports. That led me to consistently use nothing but heavy supports. I have never thought about mixing the sizes of supports, but that really makes sense. I will try that on my next print. I really like this Elegoo Saturn that I got. It is miles ahead of the Creality printer I had before. I have to admit there are a lot of settings on the machine that I still don't really understand what they do, so I tend to use generic settings. I was wondering if you used standard resin or water-washable resin? I have always used water-washable Elegoo resin because I didn't want to mess with alcohol to clean the prints. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and expertise. Have a great weekend.
@gblair - I do angle, but that's somewhat subjective when the object itself really isn't 'flat'. And when it's hollow, there's a pretty small cross section being printed typically. I have 3 different Elegoo printers, a Mars 2 a Mars 4 Max and a Saturn 3. They're all fantastic. I use water washable resin... I have the Elegoo 8k and Anycubic ABS like. I use the Anycubic in the smaller printer for doing things for my Etsy store. It's a bit more durable for things like my Airbrush stand. I use the 8k in the 2 higher res printers.
Hi Brian (@brithebuilder): The Chitubox Pro is the first slicer I have had that really has a usable hollowing tool. I have used it for a few prints, but not on a figure. I need to use it more so I can be more proficient with the tool. I started with Creality water washable resin, but now I use only Elegoo. Your pace on the figures is perfect so that I can see how you prepare and paint your figure, and then I can try it on mine.
I have been doing some research and watching YouTube videos and it seems that everyone uses acrylic to paint figures now. I want to paint the figures using oil paints. I have a bunch of oil paints from my old days when I thought I was going to be a painter. I use them now for weathering, so I want to use them on the figure because I am comfortable with them. I have a couple of old books on figure painting, back in the days when everyone used oils to paint figures. Apparently the first thing you do is to undercoat the figure in its basic colors using acrylic paint. I think this is because some of the lighter oils are translucent. Undercoating provides a good color base just in case you had done something dumb, like priming the model with black paint. :o) I started with just the face and hair for now. I need to do some research to see what colors their clothes were, then I can undercoat the rest of the figure.
1 attached image. Click to enlarge.
@gblair - Oils are a fantastic painting medium George. They're a completely valid way to work. I think a lot of people have made a switch to mostly acrylic due to the ease of cleanup and the lack of odor. I do see a lot of people seeming to move back to using oils as a weathering technique as well. I would definitely work in a lot of thin layers no matter what medium. The oils will dry a bit faster when applied in thin layers as well. No matter what, keep having fun!
